For journalists who follow the latest news and trends in consumer electronics, IHS Markit analysts will be available for commentary ahead of and onsite at IFA 2018 in Berlin, Germany, from August 31 to September 5, 2018.

The new Samsung Galaxy S9+ equipped with 64 gigabytes (GB) of NAND flash memory (model number SM-G965U1) carries a bill of materials (BOM) cost of $375.80, much higher than for previous versions of the company’s smartphones.

Teardown engineers at IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO) have completed their preliminary physical dissection of the new Apple iPhone X and found that the model A1865 version of the smartphone with 64 gigabytes (GB) of NAND memory carries a bill of materials (BOM) of $370.25.

The new Apple iPhone 8 Plus, equipped with 64 gigabytes (GB) of NAND flash memory, carries a bill of materials (BOM) cost that comes out to US$288.08, higher than any previous versions of the company’s smartphones, according to a preliminary estimate from IHS Markit.

The bill of materials (BOM) for an iPhone 7 equipped with 32 gigabytes (GB) of NAND flash memory carries $219.80 in bill of materials costs, according to a preliminary estimate from IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

Just three short years after the technology’s original deployment, worldwide subscribers to the 4G wireless standard known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) are projected to surpassthe 100-million mark this year LTE subscribers worldwide will reach 198.1 million in 2013, up a remarkable 115 percent from 92.3 million last year, according to an IHS iSuppli Wireless Communications Special Report from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS).Since being adopted in 2010 with just 612,000 users, the 4G next-generation wireless technology has grown by leaps and bounds, surging by an astounding factor of 22 to 13.2 million subscribers in 2011, and then jumping another 599 percent in 2012 to nearly 100 million subscribers. By 2016, LTE will claim more than 1.0 billion users, as shown in the figure below, equivalent to a five-year compound annual growth rate of 139 percent.

For the first time in 14 years, wireless communications giant Nokia will not sit atop the global cellphone business on an annual basis at the end of 2012—with Samsung set to seize the mobile handset market’s top rank.

Samsung is expected to account for 29 percent of worldwide cellphone shipments, up from 24 percent in 2011, according to the IHS iSuppli Mobile and Wireless Communications Service at information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). Nokia’s share this year will drop to 24 percent, down from 30 percent last year.

Just five years after Google Inc.’s Android appeared on the market in 2008, IHS forecasts that cumulative global shipments of smartphones using the operating system since it was introduced will amount to more than 1 billion in 2013.Worldwide annual unit shipments of Android phones will rise to 451 million in 2013, up from 357 million in 2012, according to an IHS iSuppli Wireless Communications Smartphone Report from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). These massive totals will mean that combined shipments for every year since the first smartphone using Android shipped in 2008 will reach 1.1 billion by the end of 2013, as presented in the figure below. In contrast, the No. 2 smartphone operating system, Apple Inc.’s iOS, will amount to 527 million in cumulative shipments in 2013 and won’t reach the 1 billion level until 2015.

Driven by increased demand from developed regions for high-end models, along with an unexpectedly strong push from emerging economies for lower-cost products, smartphones are expected to rise to account for the majority of global cellphone shipments in 2013—two years earlier than previously predicted.Smartphone shipments in 2013 are forecast to account for 54 percent of the total cellphone market, up from 46 percent in 2012 and 35 percent in 2011, according to an IHS iSuppli Wireless Communications Market Tracker Report from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). The year 2013 will mark the first time that smartphones will make up more than half of all cellphone shipments.

Six months after losing the top position in the smartphone market to Apple, Samsung in the second quarter regained leadership as its sales rose 5 percent to 36 million units, up from 34 million in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Apple suffered a 26 percent decline in shipments to 26 million units, down from 35 million in the first quarter.Samsung’s modest increase was propelled by strong growth in high-end smartphone shipments.Apple’s shipments in the second quarter were impacted by a combination of factors, including macroeconomic variables, increased competition from newer smartphone offerings and delayed purchasing among consumers who are waiting for the availability of the next iPhone model. All this led to a buildup of channel inventory, resulting in lower-than-expected iPhone volumes.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in the first quarter overtook Nokia Corp. to become the world’s largest cellphone brand for the first time. However, Samsung remained in second place in the smartphone segment of the cellphone market, behind Apple Inc.

After losing market leadership in the third quarter, Apple Inc. returned to the No. 1 rank in global smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter as consumers flocked to buy the newly introduced iPhone 4S. Meanwhile, based on strong sales of its broad line of smartphone products, Samsung has become the world’s largest smartphone brand for the entire year of 2011, marking the first time the South Korean electronics giant has held this distinction.

With the introduction of its critically acclaimed Lumia 900, Nokia Corp. has set the stage to regain some of its lost smartphone market share—and to re-establish Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone as a leading contender in the cellphone operating system (OS) business.

In life, Steve Jobs’ vision gave Apple Inc. a commanding lead over the competition. But after his death, it will be Jobs’ skills as a manager—specifically whether he built an organization that can carry on his legacy without him—that will determine whether Apple can maintain its advantage. However, no matter how successfully Jobs seeded Apple with his genius, his spark may prove irreplaceable over the long term.

While much of the coverage of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4S announcement focused on the new device’s similarity to the iPhone 4, an IHS analysis of the product illustrates key changes in the product’s feature set and component selection. Important differences include a major upgrade to the apps processor, the use of a higher-resolution and more advanced camera module, and the addition of a new cellular radio that makes the iPhone 4S a true world phone, according to Wayne Lam, senior analyst at IHS. The attached table presents a summary of features and devices for each member of the iPhone line, leveraging information from previous IHS iSuppli teardown analyses of the devices. Information on the iPhone 4S represents a preliminary analysis based on features announced by Apple. IHS iSuppli soon will reveal the results of its full physical teardown that will provide actual data on iPhone 4S components and features.